Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 250: To ask the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism when the application for the sports capital grant will be made available to organisations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23311/05]

John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)
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The national lottery funded sports capital programme, which is administered by my Department, allocates funding to sporting and community organisations at local, regional and national level throughout the country. The programme is advertised on an annual basis. Applications for funding under the 2005 programme were invited through advertisements in the press on 5 and 6 December last. The closing date for receipt of applications was 4 February.

All of the 1,362 applications received before that deadline, including one from the organisation in question, are being evaluated against the programme's assessment criteria, which are outlined in the guidelines, terms and conditions of the programme. I intend to announce the grant allocations for the programme as soon as possible after the assessment process has been completed and to announce details of and invite applications to the 2006 sports capital programme before the end of this year.